Do you know what a ‘phrasal verb’ is? In this lesson, I will explain what a phrasal verb is, and teach you the most common phrasal verbs native speakers use to talk about clothing. I will teach you ‘dress up’, ‘zip up’, ‘do up’, ‘wear in’, ‘kick off’, ‘have on’, and many more! Phrasal verbs can be difficult for English learners to remember.

Hi, there. My name is Emma, and in today’s video, I am going to teach you some phrasal verbs about getting dressed and putting on clothes. Okay? So it’s about clothes. What’s a phrasal verb? A phrasal verb is when you have a verb and you have a preposition. So it’s a verb plus preposition is a phrasal verb. Students usually hate phrasal verbs. There’s so many of them in English and they’re very difficult to remember. So, in this video, I’m going to teach you maybe 12 or 13 phrasal verbs that will really help you to improve your English.

So let’s get started. The first verb I want to teach you is: “dress up”. Okay. “Dress up”. What does it mean “to dress up”? When you dress up, maybe you have a hot, hot date. Maybe there’s the boy or the girl of your dreams and you want to look good – you will dress up, meaning you will wear something that looks extra good. So, for example, right now, I’m wearing this sweater, not dressed up. If I wanted to dress up, oh, look here, maybe I would put on this nice dress. Okay? So dress up. Here’s my sentence:
“I have a date. I have a date. I should dress up tonight.”
Okay.

“Zip up”. So again: “dress up”, “zip up”. What does “zip up” mean? Well, I’ll show you. Did you see that? “Zipping up” means you have a zipper and you pull it up.
“Zip up! It’s cold!”
Mothers love to say this to their children: “Zip up your jacket so you won’t be cold.”

Very similar to zip up, is: “button up”. When you “button up” something, you don’t zip up, you have buttons. So let me show you. So I will take off my sweater and I will put on a new jacket with buttons. Okay, so if I button up my jacket… Maybe… Where is the button? Okay, here we go. Just like this. Okay? So I buttoned up my jacket. Okay, good.
“I should button up my jacket.”

The next expression I want to teach you: “do up”. So all of these: “up”, “up”, “up”, “up”. If you “do something up”, it means you either button it up or you zip up. “Do up” means the same thing as “zip up” and “button up”.
“I must do up my jacket.”
Means: I should button up my jacket, do up your jacket. Okay? It’s all the same.

“Have on”.
“What do you have on right now?”
It means the same thing as: “wearing”. What are you wearing? What do you have on? Pay special attention, the preposition is: “on”. Okay? So tell me, what does Emma have on right now? Emma has a hat on. Well, it’s not exactly a hat; it’s a shower cap. I like to take baths, so this is for the shower.

What’s the opposite of: “put on”? Oh, I don’t have it here. Well, you will see it in a moment. But I put on – “take off”. I took off my hat.

Next expression: “throw on”.
“I threw on my hat.”
Can you guess what this means? If I “throw it on”, it means I do it quickly. Okay? “I threw on my hat and I ran out the door.”, “I threw on my hat and I went to school.”, “I threw on my jacket and I went to school.” So it means you put on clothes very quickly. I’m going to take off my hat. I think it’s a little too colourful.

“Try on”. What does it mean “to try something on”? If you ever go to a store and you see: “Oh, look at that dress. It’s the most beautiful dress.” I’m going to try it on, meaning I’m going to put it on at the store to see if I like it. So “try on” is for shopping. You usually go to a small room, a fitting room, and you see if you like the outfit by putting it on. So it’s about stores.
“At the store, I tried on a shirt.”, “At the store, I tried on the shoes, I tried on the hat.” So this is the expression: “try on”.

Again: “on”, “on”, “on”, “on”. And the first four were: “up”, “up”, “up”, “up”. It’s very important that you use the correct prepositions. If I say: “Do down”, or: “do in”, or: “do off”, these maybe don’t make any sense or they have different meanings. So the preposition is what makes the meaning. So let me teach you some more expressions about getting dressed.

Okay, so I already explained: “take off”, but I wanted you to see how it’s spelt. “Take off”. I took off my hat, now I have no hat.
“I took off my jacket.”
Means to take off your jacket. Okay, so it’s the opposite of: “put on”. I put on my hat and I took off my hat.